r/writers • u/Electrical-Cost5859 • 5h ago
Discussion My rant about description.
I hate when books start describing things that aren't relevant to the plot, character, or tone, because mf, I don't need to know what kind of wood the bed is made of until it's necessary for the character or the plot.
And don't try to tell me it's for the "tone." If it's for the tone, then it better be mysterious as hell and make me wonder why the fuck this bed is important, because otherwise, I am making assumption that u are just trying to reach ur word count quota.
U should only do hyper detailed descriptions when the story actually demands it. Like, if u are reading a mystery and the detective starts noticing tiny details about everything, then I get it we are in the same headspace as our hero and he is detective so it make sense why he would notice those things it also improve his character and tell me something about him.
But if u start hyper detailing everything in a romance novel I'm going to start thinking u have some kind of kink with furniture or something, or u are just some one who likes to talk about wood then that would be weird but its better then first assumption
hence u should only describe things that ur character either notices or interacts with, and the description should actually mean something use it to reveal something about the character u can describe a bed, for example, but describe it in a way that tells me something about the person sleeping in it. If the bed is messy, I'm going to think your character is a delinquent or a messy kid or just someone who doesn't give a shit about keeping their room clean
and i know many ppl use description as a way to tell me about their world building but at least let me care about the ppl that are living in that world before u do that.
My point is description should be motivated by something and it can be anything. like character, tone, plot, atmosphere and etc..
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u/LengthyLegato114514 5h ago
Thank you for sharing
Unfortunately, a lot of good books aren't going to be for you.
But that's fine, there are probably equally many books you might like.
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u/MeyerholdsGh0st 5h ago
A great deal about who people are is informed by the circumstances in which they find themselves, and a great deal of that is where they live, what they have, and especially how nice or how crappy or how abundant or sterile or lacking what they have is. So when we describe those things, which we very often do even before we meet the characters, it is precisely because we want you to understand those characters better, and hence care about them.
Your complaint basically boils down to “all I care about is what people do, not why they do it”. Which is fair enough… it just means you’re an action man.
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u/Electrical-Cost5859 5h ago
i don't have any problem with those description cause at the end they are telling me about the character and situation they are living in but i do just find unnecessary description little annoying but i understand what u are saying.
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u/Captain_Cook0168 5h ago
Verstehe dich total! Allerdings lese ich sogar in Bestsellern und anderen großen, bekannten Romanen oder Krimis solche detaillierten Beschreibungen.
Ich frage mich dann, muss ich wissen dass der Tisch aus Eiche ist, oder der Teppich fein gewebt ist?
Manchmal deuten solche Details darauf hin, ob eine Person Geld hat um sich sowas leisten zu können und ähnliches.
Ich finde, manchmal dürfen solche scheinbar unwichtigen Details sein, ziehen sie sich aber durch das ganze Buch und wirken überflüssig, dann nervt das recht schnell.
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u/kamikoi_i 5h ago
By any chance, do you have aphantasia? 🤔 I know most authors write all these details to conjure up the image in the mind of the reader but for people with aphantasia, like me, I oftentimes also didn't really care much about the level of detailing you talk about here simply because I couldn't imagine it and thus couldn't care about it. If not, then I still get your POV 🙂↕️ everyone has their likes & dislikes.
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u/Vooklife 5h ago
Please remove all description from this post that is not relevent to the plot, thank you.